CORN AC EM. 



71 



vertical furrow. The latter corresponds to the placenta, which 

 supports a descending anatropous ovule inserted near the summit, 

 with superior micropyle turned towards the placenta,^ and dorsal 

 raphe. The fruit is a berry, crowned with a scar or with the remains 



Aucuba japonica. 



Fig. 55. 1 ong. sect, of 

 female flower. 



Fig. 54. Female inflorescence. 



of the calyx. The seed, descending, encloses a hard horny albumen,^ 

 and a small apical embryo,^ with superior radicle and short cotyledons. 

 The Aucuhas are glabrous shrubs from temperate and especially 

 eastern Asia. There are two or three species.* The leaves are 

 opposite, petiolate, without stipules, coarsely serrate, penninerved, 

 coriaceous and glossy. The flowers ^ are collected at the axil of the 

 leaves, or at the end of the branches in ramified clusters of cymes, 

 and are articulate at the summit of a short pedicel which bears two 

 bracteoles below. 



Griselinia^ has very close affinities with Aucuha. It has the 

 inferior ovary, ordinarily unilocular and uniovulate,^ surmounted by 

 four or five sepals and an equal number of imbricate petals ^ (which 

 may be absent). The male flower, in construction like that of 



' The funicle, short and thick, forms a sort of 

 obturator above it. 



2 Often a little uneven on the surface. . 



^ It is often only about a third of the length 

 of the albtmien and may be eccentric. Duchar- 

 TRE, who however places Aucuba among the 

 Cornece, says {Elem. edit. 2, 1129) that the latter 

 have " the embryo in the axis and nearly of the 

 length of the fleshy albumen." 



4 About six are admitted. Hook. f. III. 

 Himal. Fl.t. 12.— Besth. Fl. Hougk. 138.— Fu. 

 et Sav. Enum. Fl. Jap. i. 197. — Bot. Mag. t. 

 1197, 5512.— Walp. Rep. ii. 436. 



» Small, greenish, with the petals ordinarily 

 of a brownish purple sunk within. 



8 FoRST. Prodr. 75 (not Neck.). — Spreng. 

 PugilL t. 63.— Endl. Gen. n. 6886.— H. Bn. 

 Payer Fam. Nat. 341 ; Adansonia, v. 184. — B. H. 

 Gen. 951, n. 9. — ScopoUa Forst. Char. Gen. 139, 

 t. 70 (not L. nor Adans. nor Schreb. nor Sm.). 

 —Becostea R. et Pav. Prodr. 130.— K. Ann. Sc. 

 Nat. ser. 1, ii. 346.— Endl. Gen. n. 4576.— Pw- 

 kateria Raoul, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 3, ii. 120. 



<■ Sometimes it presents one or two comple- 

 mentary cells, ordinarily smaller and sterile, 

 rarely fertile. In most species it is surmounted 

 by three stylary branches. Above the ovule, 

 the short funicle is more or less thickened, a 

 _ in A ucuba, and often in all parts. 



8 Sometimes however nearly valvate. 



